What Hosting Should New Bloggers Choose: Free or Paid?

It appears that in this day and age nearly everyone has their own page, blog or other means of representation on the Internet. They can be used to share opinions and lifehacks, promote your skills and contribute to the global pool of content available, but behind the overwhelming majority of them there is the purpose of making money.

Since blogs can yield significant profits if managed appropriately, more people are turning into bloggers in an attempt to gain popularity. Whatever the reason why you have decided to run your own blog, it requires a place where your entries and messages will be stored, so purchasing hosting services is an essential part of blogging.

However, it is not that easy to say for sure what kind of hosting, free or paid, you are going to need. Depending on several factors, you should opt either for a free hosting plan or for something that is more reliable. Is it worth saving the budget or should you invest in the services of a reputable hosting provider right before the start of your blogging activity? Let’s consider the pros and cons.

Why using free hosting is a bad idea

Getting something for free excites many a beginner entrepreneur, as free hosting solutions enable you to start writing right after you have decided to do so. Your free blog is a couple of clicks away, as all you have to do is to register and choose a theme. You can even be given a free domain name (which isn’t going to look nice or be short and easy to pronounce, but it’s still free, so why complaining?).

With free hosting, you have access to the website content and settings, including its design. However, the fact that such hosting solutions are available to anyone appears to be its only advantage. Actually, free hosting is an option only for those who do not intend to make money using the blog, for instance, if it’s just a page for sharing news with your friends. (But why not using some social network then? They have way more useful features.)

There are several reasons why using free hosting is not recommended to those who want the project to be more or less serious.

• Free hosting usually means shared hosting, so you are going to have a lot of neighbors. Your blog is likely to be packed with hundreds of other websites crammed into one server, the capacity of which is limited, so the overcrowded environment takes its toll on the blog performance. That being said, you will not be able to expand your website or accommodate all the visitors, should their number exceed 400 or so per day. The resources allocated are usually not enough to develop the project, so your blog is likely to plateau soon.

• Another problem characteristic of free hosting services stems from the previous one. Being overcrowded, the free server can fail, which will lead to downtime, and commercial websites cannot afford downtime, as it will affect sales.

• In most cases, free hosting is just a place for you to be alone. There is no tech support (it’s a rare case when a free hosting provider helps non-paying users), and you are left to your own devices (pun intended).

• Since the hosting is free, you cannot demand anything from the support team.

• There may be hidden fees, for instance, for using extra features like special scripts.

All this boils down to avoiding free hosting, unless all you need is a personal blog with no aim of making money.

Worth the price

Paid hosting solutions are usually devoid of such drawbacks, and while downtime can occur, such cases are rare, especially compared to free hosting. Investing in quality hosting is recommended to anyone who intends to make the project serious and turn it into a popular blog with lots of visitors and tons of content.

Before you purchase hosting services, consider its cost-effectiveness: there is no need to buy some costly fully-managed solution if you are at the beginning of your blogging journey. Another advantage of paid hosting is that you can expand your website at any time, while enjoying much more features than free hosting offers. When choosing a hosting provider, do some research and opt for the one with good reputation.